Useless fact of the day: Each sperm carries 37.5MB of DNA data.

[Initech]

I wonder how they found that number? :evilgrin:

Useless Fact: Each Sperm Carries 37.5 MB of DNA Data
4:00 AM - November 26, 2011 by Douglas Perry -
source: Tom's Hardware US

Did you know that each sperm carries the equivalent of 37.5 MB of DNA data? Imagine the throughput of hundreds of million sperm!

ZoomI stumbled over this vital piece of information when an Austrian Facebook page announced that it would publish its Facebook Page "Unnuetzes Wissen", which translates to "Useless Knowledge" as a printed book and gave a taste of the vital information that can be found on its pages. You could learn, for example, that the 55 percent of DNA of a banana represents human DNA. Or, you will be reminded of the source of the word spam as we use it to describe unsolicited email.

However, its likely more than computer nerd will find it interesting that each sperm carries DNA worth about 37.5 MB of data. It appears that this has been common knowledge in some corners of the web, but it was certainly news to me. Apparently, that number results from the assumption that a human cell can hold 75 MB of genetic information. So, if you complete that thought and assume that an ejaculation event typically holds 200 - 300 million sperm (and yes, we know that there are fabs out there with smaller and bigger production capacities), that would be 7153 TB to 10,729 TB per ejaculation.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/data-storage-data-transfer-sperm-dna,14089.html

[Duer 157099]

1. Open up a text editor, like Notepad

Now start typing in a bunch of letters, no spaces. Use only A, T, C and G. Just randomly. Keep going. Yeah, more. Do this for a really long time. In fact, do it until when you save the file, the size is 37.5MB. Now do a character count using the software and see how many letters are in the file. That would be the number of bases in the DNA of one sperm cell.

Not so difficult, really.

We're all just ones and zeroes.

[HopeHoops]

2. I'm pretty sure I've got more disk space than one squirt.

Frankly, that would be true with a single-sided 5 1/4" floppy now - I got the big V almost 17 years ago.

[Initech]

5. So each ejac would be enough to fill a 500GB hard drive then?

:shrug:

[HopeHoops]

13. I didn't run the calculation. If that's true, I've got roughly 22 times that much.

And that's just on my main machine (6 core i7 with 24GB, 3TB internal, and a shitload of external USB drives). I only keep six of the 1TB drives in a constant access state and swap in the nearly TB drives (older) as needed. They all have their own purposes.

I'm going to have to tell my wife, "Hang on, baby, here comes a half terabyte!!!" :evilgrin:

On Edit: that's actually not true anymore - got the "big V" almost 17 years ago.

[zanana1]

3. If I had a nickel for everyone who asks me that question...

I'd be broke.

[Arkansas Granny]

4. Sperm - the workhorse of the animal kingdom. Not only do they have to swim

faster, they have to carry heavy loads, too.

[rug]

6. That's one way to disseminate knowledge.

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

7. What does it mean if yours only have 36.5 MB

Just curious
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doesn't mean anything to me
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really
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Stop Laughing! I'm just fine
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I mean I'm normal in every way
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but my parents did say the Dr's cut off my tail before they could be stopped...

[jakeXT]

8. Something is wrong, plus a boy (Y-Chromosome) has less info

The length of the Y chromosome is about 51 Mb about three times shorter than the 155 Mb for the X chromosome. The euchomatic part of the X chromosome is six times longer than that of Y. Few genes on the X have an active counterpart on the Y, and the majority of these are contained in regions where XY homology (similar structure) is of relatively recent origin.

http://universe-review.ca/R11-14-Ychromosome.htm

[saras]

9. Is that all? Shit, I can write 40MB of assembler - it'll take a while, though.

It's going to be interesting when creating new species is as easy as making mashups.

[krispos42]

10. That's something I would expect from the Terminator's spec sheet

:D

[MilesColtrane]

11. Packet Switching- Using two different hands

I know, I know...that's a little BAUDy

[NickB79]

12. "Hey baby, I've got a hard drive in my pants"

"Want to help me turn it into a floppy?"